Essay On Missouri Compromise

I don’t think that the Missouri Compromise dealt with the sectional conflict over slavery. Even with many of the people upset with the compromise congress went ahead and passed it or shove it out of the way. The Missouri Compromise did nothing but intensified the conflict over slavery between the North and the South taking away the grip of the Northern states. Missouri was considered a slave state, making it so the north could outlaw slavery above the 36° 30° line and the south expanded their region of slavery. The Missouri Compromise split the democratic republican alliance which held most of national politics for about twenty years.

Before the South‘s secession the Missouri compromise helped a lot in keeping balance. After Missouri requested to be a slave state to the Union, Congress knew that it would cause an uproar between states that were and weren‘t slave oriented. Due to this, the Congress created the Missouri compromise to keep balance between everybody. On May 3, 1920 the compromise was put in place which meant that it set Maine as a free state and Missouri as a slave state still creating perfect balance. As the Missouri compromise was in place it was condemned by plenty of Southerners but even with that it lasted and kept peace with everyone as well as help keep the Union together for more than thirty years.

The founding fathers of the nation Compromised on writing the constitution, producing a union of thirteen sovereign and independent states, the structure of the legislature, the election procedure of Congressmen, the powers of each branch of government and the existence of slavery. Years down the line, however, the strength of the union almost came apart when Missouri applied for admission into the union as a slave state. The Northerners were for slavery while the Southerners were for its abolition and this was exposed quite plainly by the debates carried out on the floor of Congress. This came on the backdrop of the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which saved the country from Civil war and secession but did nothing to address the issue of slavery in their midst. Between 1820 and 1850, a number of slaves revolted seeking to gain their freedom.

Missouri Compromise The Missouri Compromise was the effort of Congress to end the sectional and political rivalries triggered by the request of Missouri late in 1819 for admission as a state in which slavery would be permitted. The Missouri Compromise happened in 1820. It is important because Congress passed a bill granting Missouri statehood as a slave state under the condition that it was to be forever prohibited in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase. Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams, and James Tallmadge were involved in the Missouri Compromise.

In February 1819, New York Representative James Tallmadge Jr. electrified the proceedings by proposing an amendment to ban the transport of more slaves in Missouri as a condition of statehood, even though there were more than 2,000 slaves living there. From here the debate began (Text p. 316). The South felt that the U.S. government had no power to restrict slavery, which was protected under the Constitution. The North felt that slavery was evil and should be restricted to the current slave states.

The 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act was an act, which allowed new territories to decide if they were a free or slave state by popular sovereignty (Civilwar.org, Kansas-Nebraska Act). Kansas-Nebraska Act negated the Missouri Compromise. Missouri Compromise was an effort by the congress to diffuse the political rivalries triggered by the request of Missouri in 1819 for admission as a state in which supported slavery (Garraty and Foner). This was done to restore the balance of slave and free states at the time. Kansas-Nebraska Act violated the compromise that was made in the Missouri Compromise, it reignited the disagreement between the anti and pro-slavery factions, which lead to violent events.

missouri as a slave or free state would majorly disrupt the balance of the U.S.'s free vs. slave areas (surfacing debate over if slavery should be permitted at all in America). The compromise prevented any further expansion of pro-slave territories as well as fortified the Fugitive Slave Law. The forced the non-slaveowners tp participate in slavery.

The conflict over slavery became more brutal as the United States expanded westward. It began to force Americans to either identify themselves as anti-slavery or pro-slavery. The discovery of new states led to the conflict on whether they should be admitted as free states or slaves states. Compromises, such as the Missouri Compromise of 1820 were attempted to settle the conflict of free states or slave states. The Missouri Compromise declared that all new states above the line would be establish as free states, and all states below the line would be establish as slave states.

Southerners did not want Northerners to have more representatives, and vice versa. Then, in 1820, the Missouri Compromise allowed two states to join the nation, preserving the balance of slave holding and free states. This eased the congressional debate on slavery, until the topic of admitting four free states was introduced. Now, Southerners felt that soon they would be outnumbered, so they threatened to secede. In hopes of keeping the country together, Henry Clay devised the Compromise of 1850.

Being “the first great Congressional compromise over the slavery issue” , the Compromise was very important because it set a precedent that Congress can dictate and regulate slavery in new territories entering the Union. This might not have seemed like a very big issue at the time, but a few decades later this became a very hot topic for debate. The Missouri Compromise was always a solution that just postponed the Civil War, the war was inevitable. Without everyone being in agreement over the issue of slavery, there would always be tensions between states. The Missouri Compromise was abolished in 1854 when the Kansas-Nebraska Act was introduced.

The Missouri Compromise The Missouri Compromise helped resolve the issue of whether new free states would be slave states or free states. The request by slave-holding Missouri to join the union caused an angry debate that worried Jefferson, former president, and Adams, presently in Senate. Many Missouri settlers had brought enslaved African Americans into the territory with them. By 1819 Missouri had about 50,000 whites and 10,000 slaves.

The U.S was only able to settle political disputes through compromise until 1860 because of the increasing sectionalism, the Abolitionist Movement and the Secession of South Carolina. New states joined into congress creating an unbalanced senate forcing congress to make decisions to balance the nation between freedom and slavery. The Missouri Compromise failed as an attempt to maintain peace between the North and South because it created an greater sense of sectionalism throughout the country. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was a decision to make Missouri a slave state to maintain an even number of free and slave states. It led to uproar in congress and the North retaliated by declaring the rest of the Louisiana territory to be free.

This act to free slaves was estimated to helping anywhere from forty thousand to one-hundred thousand slaves reach freedom. This helped spread abolitionist feelings throughout the North, while also convincing pro-slavery southerners of the northerner’s determination to defeat the slave upholding’s in the South. As America began to grow and acquire more land the conflict over slavery grew. Missouri’s application for statehood ended in a compromise, Missouri was admitted as a slave state, and Maine was free and all western territories north of Missouri’s southern border were free soil. However, the Missouri Compromise was only a temporary plan to maintain an even balance between slave and free states.

At the time, there was not a way to completely settle the issue, but there was a way to ease some of the dispute between the states. The Missouri compromise was made to alleviate some of the conflicts over slavery. Slavery all started in 1619 in America when African slaves were taken to Jamestown, Virginia (history.com 2017). Slavery was an acceptable practice throughout the country in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (history.com 2009). African American slaves were taken from their homes and brought to America to be put in other peoples homes and do work (gilderlehrman.org 2009).

The issue the compromise was about was whether there should be slavery in the western territories. Maine wanted to be added to the Union, however, slavery was banned there. If Maine were to be added to the Union, it would upset the balance between free and slave states in the nation and the Senate. So, the Missouri Compromise, proposed by Senator Henry Clay, allowed Maine to enter the Union as a free state, and allowed Missouri to be entered into the Union as a slave state.